James, what is invovled in the insight weekend? If you do well do they offer you a place at recruitment selection? How do things go when your thinking about going the officer route?
Cheers, Rob
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Am i the only one who has been to a recriutment center or what 
Anyway I don't want to give away all of their secrets by giving you an in depth synopsis of what we did, but what i will say is that they don't want to see no hopers and people who don't have a chance because you will not be invited back again, simply. You have to give it your best try on all of the tasks and tests you do, and don't stand out as someone who either is not giving 100% or having the wrong attitude or anything else, just be the grey man from the start.
I know it is only an insight into the regiment, but you just don't want to give them a bad impression of yourself if you plan on returning in the future and you probably want to get the following things out of the weekend without giving the staff a bad impression:
-Firstly you want to see what the regiment is like, what the soldeirs are like, what the Colchester barracks are like etc
-And the second thing is, you want to know personally how much fitness you need to do before you join (if you want to join).
They do emphasise fitness alot because Paratroopers are fitness machines, they are the army's most agressive spearhead infantry troops and they need to be the best at what they do. It is a very tough reg to get into and it is very popular and recruitment is not a problem i don't think and they do emphasise those things aswell.
With regards to recruitment selection, they give you a card type thing called a Preference Card that you can show when you go for recruitment and selection. Basically what it is, is a card to show that you have had an insight into the Paras and you want to join the Infantry as a soldier with a preference to the Parachute Regiment. The soldier who issues the card to you and has his name on it, will recieve money for every recruit who goes on to serve in a Parachute Battalion after all of selection and basic training etc... but we are reliably informed that they use the money for extra equipment such as Overhead Projectors and other expensive pieces of kit to help recruitment. On the other hand it could just as easily go into a beer money stash for the lads on the weekend 
As an officer, it is advised that you are of degree calibre which means you don't have to have a degree, but it is advised (plus you get promoted quicker if you have a degree). You then somewhere along the lines have a POC Potential Officers Course held at Colchester where you have numerous tests (dont know any details about the POC apart from it is hard) to test leadership potential, fitness and other things. You will probably have interviews aswell. It basically is to see whether the Paras like the look of you as a Potantial Officer in their reg and whether you like the look of the Paras. If they do like you then you will get sponsership from them either through Uni or Sandhurst or both.
After Uni you do the Sandhurst course at RMAS which is essentially an Officers basic training. It is a tough course and it focuses on leadership aswell as all other skills required to be an Officer in the British army. After the Sandhurst course you come out as a 2nd Lt i think, but i have heard that if you have a degree you come out as a 1st Lt, not sure.
Anyway, i am not 100% on the order of things, but again somewhere along the lines the Officer does all arms P-company and the Brize Course, probably after Sandhurst.
Hope this clears alot of stuff up for anyone unsure.
Cheers
James
Anyway I don't want to give away all of their secrets by giving you an in depth synopsis of what we did, but what i will say is that they don't want to see no hopers and people who don't have a chance because you will not be invited back again, simply. You have to give it your best try on all of the tasks and tests you do, and don't stand out as someone who either is not giving 100% or having the wrong attitude or anything else, just be the grey man from the start.
I know it is only an insight into the regiment, but you just don't want to give them a bad impression of yourself if you plan on returning in the future and you probably want to get the following things out of the weekend without giving the staff a bad impression:
-Firstly you want to see what the regiment is like, what the soldeirs are like, what the Colchester barracks are like etc
-And the second thing is, you want to know personally how much fitness you need to do before you join (if you want to join).
They do emphasise fitness alot because Paratroopers are fitness machines, they are the army's most agressive spearhead infantry troops and they need to be the best at what they do. It is a very tough reg to get into and it is very popular and recruitment is not a problem i don't think and they do emphasise those things aswell.
With regards to recruitment selection, they give you a card type thing called a Preference Card that you can show when you go for recruitment and selection. Basically what it is, is a card to show that you have had an insight into the Paras and you want to join the Infantry as a soldier with a preference to the Parachute Regiment. The soldier who issues the card to you and has his name on it, will recieve money for every recruit who goes on to serve in a Parachute Battalion after all of selection and basic training etc... but we are reliably informed that they use the money for extra equipment such as Overhead Projectors and other expensive pieces of kit to help recruitment. On the other hand it could just as easily go into a beer money stash for the lads on the weekend
As an officer, it is advised that you are of degree calibre which means you don't have to have a degree, but it is advised (plus you get promoted quicker if you have a degree). You then somewhere along the lines have a POC Potential Officers Course held at Colchester where you have numerous tests (dont know any details about the POC apart from it is hard) to test leadership potential, fitness and other things. You will probably have interviews aswell. It basically is to see whether the Paras like the look of you as a Potantial Officer in their reg and whether you like the look of the Paras. If they do like you then you will get sponsership from them either through Uni or Sandhurst or both.
After Uni you do the Sandhurst course at RMAS which is essentially an Officers basic training. It is a tough course and it focuses on leadership aswell as all other skills required to be an Officer in the British army. After the Sandhurst course you come out as a 2nd Lt i think, but i have heard that if you have a degree you come out as a 1st Lt, not sure.
Anyway, i am not 100% on the order of things, but again somewhere along the lines the Officer does all arms P-company and the Brize Course, probably after Sandhurst.
Hope this clears alot of stuff up for anyone unsure.
Cheers
James
